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Commas are a really useful writing tool. You could compare them to taking a breath when writing a sentence. However, it’s easy to go over the top and use them incorrectly.

One of the worst offenders is the comma splice. Put simply, a comma splice occurs in sentence where a full stop or a connecting word should have been used instead.

Some examples of a comma splice:

The team had worked really hard today, it was time for a cup of coffee.
My cat went missing last week, this morning it was on my bed.
There are many reasons to visit Greece, the beaches are lovely.

The two parts here could stand independently as two separate sentences, so a comma should not be used.

There are two ways to solve these splices. One is to use a connecting word (also known as a coordinator) to join the two independent sections. Coordinators are words like: and, but, or, yet and so.

The team had worked really hard today, so it was time for a cup of coffee.
My cat went missing last week, but this morning it was on my bed.
There are many reasons to visit Greece, and the beaches are lovely.

The second solution is to be brave and close off each sentence with a full stop.

The team had worked really hard today. It was time for a cup of coffee.
My cat went missing last week. This morning it was on my bed.
There are many reasons to visit Greece. The beaches are lovely.

Once you’re aware of this really common error, you’ll probably spot it everywhere. Time to get the red pen out.

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